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Gymnastics Canada – QUEBEC CITY, QC (February 3, 2018) – Gymnastics Canada is honoured to announce our award winners in men’s artistic gymnastics for 2017. The winners were presented with their awards on Saturday night as part of the 2018 Elite Canada competition taking place at Telus Stadium in Quebec City.

SENIOR ATHLETE OF THE YEAR – RENE COURNOYER, REPENTIGNY, QC

Cournoyer, a member of the men’s senior national team since 2015, qualified for a team-leading five finals at the three World Challenge Cups he attended in 2017. He showed off his talent as one of the team’s top all-arounders by doing it on 5 different apparatus – a 4th on parallel bars, and 5th on rings in Koper, SLO; 6th on pommel horse in Osijek, CRO; and 6th on high bar and 8thon rings in Szombathely, HUN.

He also placed 11th in the all-around at the FISU Games this past summer, and was a member of Team Canada at the 2017 World Championships in Montreal.

“It’s such a great honour to be named athlete of the year. It means so much to me especially since most of the important competitions of the year were in Quebec! I did my best to represent Canada in every competition I had this year and am really happy to see all of my hard work pay off.”

SENIOR COACH OF THE YEAR – JEAN-SÉBASTIEN TOUGAS, REPENTIGNY, QC

Tougas, coach of Rene Cournoyer, has been coaching at Club Gymnika for over 25 years. An NCCP Level 4 coach, Tougas loves seeing the happiness of his gymnasts when they’ve had a good performance, and while he has coached in a number of different sports, he has stuck with gymnastics because he loves the constant challenge of the sport: “we can’t teach the same skill in the same way to two different athletes – there is never just one way of doing things.”

“This is a great recognition and I’m very honoured. “I have a lot of emotions about this. This isn’t just my job – it’s my life. It’s my passion!”

AGE GROUP COACH OF THE YEAR – ZHAOHUI HUANG, MISSISSAUGA, ON

Zhaohui Huang from Futures Gymnastics in Mississauga, ON is the coach of some of Canada’s top young talent including Evgeny Siminuc and Dorian Doan who placed first and second respectively in the Junior 14-15 all-around competition at the 2017 Canadian Championships.

“I’m so proud and very happy to receive this award. I love the sport, and I love coaching.”

FIG WORLD CLASS ATHLETE AWARD – ZACH CLAY, COQUITLAM, BC

By qualifying for the men’s all-around final at the 2017 FIG World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Montreal, QC (where he finished 21st), Zach Clay added his name to a prestigious list of 30 other Canadian male artistic gymnasts to have been named “World Class Gymnasts” by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG). Athletes are named to the list when they qualify for a final at a World Championships or Olympic Games. For a complete list of these athletes, please click here and select “Men’s artistic Gymnastics” and “Canada”: http://fig-gymnastics.com/publicdir/athletes/wcg_view.php

“It means a lot just to represent Canada, and then to get an award for that? I’m very thankful. It’s really rewarding and an honour to get this award.”

PHOTOS ARE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

ABOUT GYMNASTICS CANADA 
First established in 1969, Gymnastics Canada is the national governing body for the sport of gymnastics in Canada. Gymnastics Canada works closely with the twelve Provincial Federations and the 700 local clubs to provide a broad range of programs and services to meet the needs of all participants. From athlete development, to coaching and judging education, Gymnastics Canada sets the operating standards and practices for the sport in Canada. Our mandate is to promote and provide positive and diverse gymnastics experience through the delivery of quality and safe gymnastics programming. Visit www.gymcan.org for more information, or follow us @CDNgymnastics.
 

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For more information, contact:
 
Julie Forget
Director, Communications and Marketing
Gymnastics Canada
Cell: 819.210.2064
Email: jforget@gymcan.org